Tag: Turkish State

On the 30th August Scottish police raided the homes of innocent Kurdish civilians. This is part of a growing tendency of Britain to criminalise these people and their supporters.

The local Kurdish Community penned the following letter:

As of Wednesday 30th August 2017, the police has carried out raids to the homes of various Kurdish community members. Later, a forced entry was used to raid the Kurdish community centre in Edinburgh.

Kurdish community centre is a place where the Kurdish community gather to share their language, culture and traditions. We hold Kurdish language classes, folklore dance classes and English language classes. Our community refer to the centre as our “common home”. It is where we can peacefully and freely embrace our identity and pass our culture onto our children. Having come to Scotland as Kurdish refugees many years ago, we have now integrated into the Scottish society here. Our children are growing up half Kurdish, half Scottish and they are, just like all other youth in Scotland, the future of this country. We have formed many relationships with communities, organisations and charities. We have been welcomed here with positive attitudes and to this day both the Scottish government and the people of Scotland have made us feel at home. We left difficult days of persecution and discrimination back home and came to Scotland with a vision of peace, unity and hope.

However – since the Turkish Consulate has been established in Edinburgh, they have put in every effort and energy to intimidate our community by criminalising both us and our centre. This is the second time we are being labelled, targeted and questioned by the police. We therefore believe the police are under the pressure and influence of the Turkish consulate who are bringing the intimidation tactics of the Turkish Government to Scotland.This is an open form of racism. It is against our most basic human rights. We are a migrant community

With Scotland moving closer to independence why can they not support the same for the Kurdish people?

and have already suffered many years of injustice.

We no longer want to face policies of denial and discrimination. Our community are now very disheartened but also very determined to stand firm against this undeserved treatment.
Kurdish community centre

The thing that breaks my heart about all this is that the Scottish people have experienced years of oppression and they should know what it feels like. Why aren’t they standing up for the Kurdish minorities and why aren’t they standing up against the fascism of the Turkish State? If you want to show support for Kurdish people please tweet to your MPs, write to the Scottish Parliament, and you can also join the Kurdish Solidarity Campaign.